Surgical instruments are widely known and have been used for some time now in various surgical procedures. In recent years, surgical instruments for applying staples or other fasteners for closing wounds, as well as instruments for occluding or ligating various tubular vessels, such as blood vessels, have been developed. These instruments for closing wounds apply a plurality of staples or other types of fasteners and apply the fasteners either in a repeating mode; that is, one fastener after another each time the instrument is actuated, or as a series of fasteners at a single time on one actuation of the instrument. These types of repeating surgical instruments may be classified as automatic or semi-automatic and greatly reduce the time involved in certain aspects of a surgical procedure. The instruments continue to gain acceptance in the surgical community. One problem with these instruments is that after they have been used they need to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized and reloaded with new fasteners to be used repeated times. Because of the complexity of the mechanical operation of many of these instruments and the intricacy of their works, it is often very difficult to be certain that the instrument is sterilized. This is especially true in many hospitals where the only technique for sterilization is auto-claving. To solve this problem, there have been developed disposable or single use versions of such repeating instruments. By making the instruments disposable, the re-sterilization problem is solved. Also, the instrument can be sterilized by various techniques; that is, cobalt irradiation, ethylene oxide, etc., under controlled conditions to insure that the instrument is sterile. However, by making the instrument disposable a number of other problems arise. First, it is desirable to make the disposable instrument out of inexpensive materials. Because of the complexity of the instrument and the mechanical movements required in these instruments, the requirements placed on these materials for certain uses is quite stringent. For example, the actuator or the driver which is going to repeatedly drive fasteners or set fasteners one after the other must be sufficiently strong and flexible to go through a sterilization procedure, be packaged, perhaps be stored for extended periods of time of 6 months, a year or more, remain sterile, and when put to use perform without even a minor flaw. Hence, to allow these disposable instruments to be made from some of the inexpensive plastic materials yet insure that a sterile, operable instrument is presented in the surgical theater, the packaging of the instrument is critical.
What I have discovered is a new and improved package for disposable instruments that have a repeating mode of operation. My new package allows the instrument to be stored and shipped while protecting all of its moving parts. My new package insures that the instrument when removed from the package is ready for use and will perform in the desire manner. My new package prevents dislodgment of the fasteners within the instrument and prevents dislodgment of the instrument within the package that might be harmful to the instrument and its function. The package is readily sterilizable and protects and maintains the instrument in a desired condition for extended periods of time.